The Tales of Ragnarök
by katyfalck
Summary: The Man in the Moon has chosen two new Guardians. But why? What new evil has risen up to face the Guardians? Hiccup was just minding his own business, dealing with all the joys and problems that come with being the eternal Dragon Alpha, when he was (almost) kidnapped by an overgrown rabbit and a couple of hairy creatures. No Hijack! No pairings! No RoBTD!
1. Prologue

Darkness. That's the first thing I remember. It was dark and hot, and I was scared. I felt the red heat searing into my soul, burning away at my flesh and bones. I felt my body being gently lifted out of the scorching liquid, and then then i saw the moon. It was so big and it was so bright it seemed to chase the darkness away, and when it did, i wasn't scared anymore. My name is Hiccup Horrendous Haddock. How do I know that? The moon told me.

I stood on the dried, crusted magma that had once held me captive in its searing grasp. Looking around at my surroundings I deduced that I was in the heart of a volcano. But how I got there and how I would get out were the two big questions. It was dark, but the moon still shone brightly from the hole at the top of the burning mass of earth around me. The heated crust I was standing on also seemed to cast a strange glow around me, causing unearthly shadows to dance around me as the dim light flickered. The environment was deadly hot, obviously, but I wasn't sweating. The temperature didn't bother me whatsoever.

Something stirred behind me and I spun around, yelping as i tripped over the finned tail that sprouted from my backside and getting tangled in a pair of large, black wings I had not noticed until now. I fell backwards, cursing as I skinned my elbows on the rough crust. Well that answers the question on how I would get out of the volcano. If only I knew how to use them…

I tested my muscles, looking for the ones that would activate these new limbs, and found them when the wings lifted and opened to a magnificent size. I gave them a few test flaps before focusing on the tail, testing how that flicked side to side and how the fins at the end opened and closed like my wings. I pushed off the hot ground, fully expecting to be carried out of the burning hole in the earth by my powerful wings, and I managed to fly for a few seconds, before I crashed back to the ground.

I skidded painfully across the ground, and feeling pieces of gravel and debris dig its way under my already skinned elbows and now into the skin of my arms and legs. I felt a pull in my gut and suddenly brightly coloured flames burst from my hands, quickly spreading to the rest of my body in a red-hot blaze. Letting out a yelp, I began patting at the flames encasing my body, trying to extinguish myself before realizing the licking fire wasn't hurting me. In fact, it felt natural. Great even.

I found myself testing out these new abilities, first by focusing the flames onto my hands and other parts of me. Then I concentrated on the magma around me, feeling the force of its power and relishing in the energy that flowed through me as a result. I thrust out my left hand with my palm face down and felt the tug in my gut again, letting out an excited whoop as the first geyser of blazing liquid erupted a few meters from where I was standing. I raised my right hand and then a second burst to the surface. A third flared up behind me without my command, but I wasn't scared of it. In fact I revelled in its rebellious power. More geysers spewed around me, breaking off chunks of crust and tossing them into the air.

All of a sudden the ground gave way as the volcano, started by my playing, began to fully erupt. Smoke and ash bellowed out the mouth as burning rocks began to fly, causing mass destruction to the island around it. The ocean began to boil and great waves hit the shores as hardened lava rocks crashed into the water, generating vast clouds of salty steam that mixed in with the smoke and ash. The different fauna and brush caught on fire as the sluggish lava passed, which spread and amounted to unstoppable forest fires. The creatures all began to run away, or in some cases, fly away. But most were unable to escape the volcano's devastating wrath.

Without a concern in the world, I leapt into the air, allowing the hot air and exploding lava to carry me out in a dramatic fashion. The night sky was lit up by my great entrance, and the once cold, crisp autumn air was now an inferno as lava lethargically spilled down the mountain, quickly gaining speed as channels were formed, destroying everything in its path. Oblivious to this, I continued to play with my new fire powers by shooting various types of flames from my hands from liquid flames not much different from the magma to radiant sparks that lit up my face in wonder.

Once I was finished playing with my fire, I began playing with the fins of my tail, seeing how each movement affected my flying. I soared into the night sky, thinking of flying into the stars, maybe even touching the moon. But I never got that far as distant lights caught my attention. Curiosity over took me and I began flying toward these lights. I will touch the moon later, I decided as the wind whistled past me, my wings keeping me aloft and my tail directing me.

* * *

The village of Berk was in chaos. There was smoke and ash raining down everywhere, making seeing and breathing next to impossible. People coughed relentlessly and crashed into eachother, adding to the fear and confusion. But there was no fire. The villagers were running around in a panic, believing Ragnarök was upon them. They were agitated and lost after the death of their chief, and there wasn't anyone to direct them.

That was the case until a woman named Astrid Hofferson took charge. She was tall with blond hair weaved into a braid that fell over her shoulder. She wore thick furs over her hands and in her hood, her skirt was decorated with small metal spikes. Despite her grievance over the loss of her husband. She stood bravely in the middle of the crowd and began yelling commands: look for the source of the fire, evacuate the elderly and children to the Great Hall, account for the dragons. This began to ease the panic and some organization was established as villagers began carrying out these orders.

Suddenly, the dragons around her took off, abandoning their humans.

"Stormfly!" she cried as her best friend, a friendly blue Deadly Nadder, joined the other dragons in their retreat. Questions began floating around, wondering what was happening, why the gods were angry, where the dragons had gone. A renewed sense of doom was instilled in the crowd. Astrid knew they would have to carry on with out the dragons if they were to figure any of this out.

Just then, some friends of hers came up from behind her, the twins: Ruffnut and Tuffnut Thorston. Each had long blond hair, but his was styled into dread locks while hers was in three big braids with two small ones that stuck out of the side of her head. They both wore fur vests and long tunics that reached their knees. Oh great, she thought expecting some sort of destructive prank gone wrong. Or right, it was sometimes hard to tell with the twins. Either way this was going to be good.

Instead, Ruffnut pointed off in the direction of Dragon Island. It seemed to be on fire. Smoke spewed from the great volcano that used to be the home of the Red Death, a monstrous beast the size of a mountain, and was still the home of many dragons.

"The volcano is erupting," she explained darkly, "Valka and Eret just got back from their scouting mission on Dragon Island and reported it. It sounds like they was lucky to make it out alive, what with all the flying rock and ash." Astrid observed the far-off island with a growing sense of dread. If the volcano is erupting… gods help us.

"Yeah!" Tuffnut exclaimed, interrupting Astrid's thoughts and punching Ruffnut in the arm. "It's awesome!" Noticing his sister's lack of enthusiasm, he added more seriously, "but scary."

Great Woden's ghost how could this be happening, Astrid asked to herself. What had she or any of the villagers done to deserve this? After losing Snotlout to the hands of Alvin the Treacherous, as well as Gobber and Fishlegs to a sickness that had struck the village not long after, Astrid didn't think things could get much worse, but then Hiccup… No. She had to carry on and be strong. As acting chief, she had to save her grieving for another time. She absently touched her stomach, praying to the gods for a safer, happier time.

"We have to evacuate the island," she declare with a heavy heart. Everyone had grown up here, this had been our home for over seven generations, but there was no way the village was going to survive a volcanic eruption and if the dragons have already fled, the humans must do the same.

"The Hairy Hooligans have to leave Berk."

* * *

When I finally reached the village, I was surprised to find everyone running around in a panic. They seemed to be packing their things into ships, as if preparing to leave.

"Hey," I called out to no one in particular, "where's everyone going?" No one seemed to notice me as I weaved through the scrambling villagers, looking for someone to give me answers. But they all just continued on their way as if I wasn't there. That's strange, I thought. Why won't anyone answer me? What's going on here?

I looked over to a mother hustling her small child into the flow of the crowd, but she wasn't too keen on leaving.

"I don't want to go," she declared.

"We have to, Hildegard," her mother explained, "the volcano on Dragon Island is erupting and if we aren't killed by the fire, then we will choke to death on the smoke."

I laughed and shook his head. "Don't worry about that," I tried to console the small villager, "I won't let any fire touch this place." I struck what I thought was a heroic pose, but in that moment, a villager carrying an armful of sheep walked right through me. "What?" I gasped as I patted myself to make sure I was still there. I walked right up to Hildegard and began waving my hand in front of her face. She made no movement or any recognition I was there. Shock over came me, sending chills through my veins. I stumbled back and was once again walked through by a mass of villagers heading to the docks.

888

There was nothing I could do. No one could see me. I watched from the hill top as the ships carrying the villagers disappeared onto the horizon. The flames from the volcano were still visible in the distance as the morning sun began to rise, lighting up the now abandoned village.

_It wasn't your fault, _a deep, rough voice said morosely. I spun around, looking for the source of this voice, but there was no one was around me. I was the only soul on this island now… Or was I?

_Don't be afraid, _the voice continued, disproving any idea that I was alone.

"Who are you? Where are you?" I asked, starting to think I was completely losing it. There was no way the voice was in my head… Right?

_I'm part of you_, the voice explained. _We are one. Remember? You named me Toothless._

"I don't remember anything," I said, my voice wavering with apprehension. How had I not noticed that I had no memory before waking up in the volcano? This 'Toothless' person seemed to believe I was, in fact, _someone_ before. Who was I then? I don't understand anything! I thought, getting frustrated with forcefully trying to jog any memory.

_Don't worry, I will explain everything. For now, we must find the dragons. I was told that they would be waiting for us. _I nodded, starting to get used to the voice, lulled by the feelings of love and companionship he was sending to me. _Don't be sad. You're one of us now_. I nodded, feeling calm and reassured.

_Let's go._


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N: So this is my very first fanfic. Please don't judge me too harshly. I appreciate constructive criticism, but not hate! So far I've been pretty perfectionistic on this story as I do research on every little detail! (I was watching youtube videos on lava flows for the last chapter and I based most of the volcano eruption off of the 2014 movie, Pompeii). I will be including things from both the HTTYD books and TV series, as well as the RotG books, but nothing that should be too confusing as I will try to explain things as the story goes on. Anyways, enjoy! **

* * *

Nicholas St. North, also known as Santa Claus to most children, looked around his large, magical toy shop. The large, spacious cavern opened up with multiple stories of balconies all surrounding a giant globe in the centre. Despite it's size, the toy shop was warm and inviting with tall, elaborately decorated wooden pillars, and red carpets and banners to enhance the overall coziness of the toy shop. The cavern was lit with millions of randomly distributed hanging balls. Brightly coloured Christmas lights littered the humongous room, giving it a magical ambiance and a fire burned in the enormous fire place in the main space. Windows also displayed the barren tundra landscape of the North Pole, a stark contrast to the warmth indoors.

Everyone was hard at work: building, decorating, and gift wrapping numerous amounts of toys. While most people believed it was the elves who make all the toys given to children for Christmas, in reality the elves were useless: only good at getting under everyone's feet and eating everything in sight. Though they still try to be useful. It was actually the yetis - great, furry beasts who used to inhabit the Himalayas before they were given a home at North's toy shop - who make the toys. And they were excellent at it.

North passed a few on the way to his workshop, evaluating the quality of the toys being made, even though he knew they were already top of the line. Yetis only make the best. Although, the colour of those dollhouses didn't look quite right… North walked up to the Yeti painting the whimsical, two story dollhouses with precision and care in a bold vermilion.

"Colour's not right," he declared in his rough, Russian accented voice. "Paint it yellow," he decided before moving on, ignoring the cries of outrage and complaints from the yeti in question.

He was walking past the balcony directly overlooking the large, blue and green globe that dominated the heart of the toy shop - it rotated slowly, covered in the millions of tiny, yellow lights that represent every child in this world who believes in the Guardians - when he was stopped by a bright, cheerful moonbeam who was shining down from the open skylight.

"Hé, Man in Moon," North greeted heartily as he entered the room. "What a surprise! How can I help you?" Since MiM never leaves his spaceship, the Moon Clipper, he often sends out moonbeams as messengers and scouts. The silvery moonbeam flashed to the flashing control panel set before the globe, casting a spotlight on the lever that would send the distress signal to the other Guardians.

"There's trouble then," North deduced from the moonbeam. "The others won't be happy about this," he concluded as he twisted the lever and punched it in, activating the shimmering aurora borealis that functioned as a distress signal and would summon the other Guardians to the North Pole. He turned back to the moonbeam to ask why he was summoning the others, but it had already receded into the open skylight and back to the Moon Clipper. I guess we will all find out together, he figured then waited for the others to make their arrival.

888

North didn't have to wait long as the other Guardians arrived swiftly and without delay. Sanderson was first, coming in through the open skylight on a golden hot-air balloon made from his magical sand, quickly followed by Toothiana, who continued to direct her masses of fairies in a rushed chatter, and Bunnymund, carrying a single egg and a small paintbrush with his boomerangs strapped to his shoulder strap. Jack Frost arrived last, of course, making a chilly and blustery entrance through the skylight.

"What's up?" he asked as he flew in from the open skylight, blowing in a miniature snowstorm from outside, and landing gently beside Bunny, who jumped in surprise by Jack's sudden appearance, nearly smashing the egg he was delicately painting.

Bunny glared vehemently at the wintry spirit. "Frost," he greeted disdainfully. Jack raised a single eyebrow at the unfavourable greeting before mischievously swatting Bunny in the back of the head with his crook.

"Nice to see you too, Kangaroo," he returned the greet with a smirk. "Hey, that rhymed!"

Bunny opened his mouth to throw a proper insult at the other spirit, but he was interrupted by North's boisterous and hearty welcome.

"Is good to see everyone," he announced in his slightly broken English. A slight tingle sound could be heard as Sandy, using his gold sand, made his annoyance at being disturbed from his work known.

"It's good to see you too, but why are we here North?" Tooth asked, momentarily distracted from her work. "What's the problem?"

"Don't tell me we're dealing with Pitch again," Bunny questioned exasperatedly. North only shook his head.

"Is a mystery," he explained, shrugging his wide shoulders and looking pointedly up to the open skylight that perfectly framed the Moon Clipper, who was shining down brilliantly. "MiM? Care to explain?"

Sending down another silvery moonbeam, MiM pushed down on the centre of the mosaic in front of the control panel, activating the contraption that would cause a pedestal showcasing a large, clear crystal to emerge from the floor. The quiet _shh _of the rising pedestal was the only sound to be heard as the light of the moonbeam reflected through the crystal, causing a dazzling light display all around the room.

"Another one?" Bunny asked. "It wasn't too long ago we got this two-bob drongo." He stuck his thumb at Jack, who stuttered indignantly.

"MiM must think we need help with new problem, whatever it is," North said, gesturing with his large, brawny arms towards the Moon Clipper.

Lights reflecting from the moonlight off the crystal continued to flicker around the large room. The crystal then presented two figures, outlined in moonlight. One was a girl with long hair, decorated with flowers, that brushed her ankles. She wore a simple summer dress that fell to just below her knees and she seemed to be carrying a frying pan for some reason. She was very pretty with wide eyes and an open, cheerful smile that made you want to smile yourself. Tooth's eyes lit up with excitement.

"Yay," she cheered. "Another girl."

The other Guardians looked around at each other as if only now just realizing she was the sole female in their group.

The other figure was completely different. Instead of standing upright, the spirit was posed in a low crouch, his hands bracing himself against the ground. He had large wings that expanded out from just under his shoulder blades on his back and a long, tail that circled around in front of him. He also had hypnotic, cat-like eyes as well as various flaps that sprouted out from the crown of his head surrounded by longish tangled hair.

Bunny nodded appraisingly as he evaluated each of the new Guardians.

"Do we know them?" he asked the others, gesturing to the projections. "She looks very familiar…" Jack took a closer look at her.

"That's Rapunzel, isn't it? She's one of the seasonal spirits. Spring I believe. You should know her."

Bunny smacked his forehead. "Right! I met her once maybe, two hundred years ago. She's a sweetie-"

"Dibs!" Jack interrupted. While the other spirit looked pretty cool, Jack knew Rapunzel pretty well as they hung out every now and then. He was excited about telling her she would be joining his rank as a Guardian. He also knew where she would be right in this moment: her home was in a tower in the heart of the Black Forest, the supposed "enchanted forest" in the southwest of Germany. Jack had no idea why she liked it there so much, but that's where one could find the Spring spirit on her off season, and since it was currently Jamie's summer vacation…

"Ill get him then," Bunny said, shrugging as he hopped over to a chest by the entrance to the balcony and picked out the large canvas bag he had used to retrieve Jack once upon a time.

"Why do you guys use that thing anyways?" Jack asked, remembering his own time in the sack. North laughed exuberantly, his hands patting his large stomach as he did so.

"Is tradition! Even mortals do it. 'Hazing' they call it. Like initiation," he explained. Jack nodded as if this made any sense, but he recalled the various hazing rituals shown in some of Jamie's movies, as well as the ones he had seen as he blew through some of the university campuses. At least this isn't so brutal or humiliating.

"Okay, but I'm not stuffing Rapunzel into a bag, she's tougher than she looks and I don't particularly want a pan to the face."

"Is not for everyone."

"Does anyone know where I'm going to pick him up?" Bunny looked around at the others. "Does anyone even know this bloke?"

The Guardians all shrugged, not actually knowing who their new comrade is. Luckily the ever-so-helpful MiM was there to point them in the right direction as a thin moonbeam indicated a spot in the Norwegian Sea north of Scotland and next to Norway on the large Globe behind them. Jack leapt gracefully, allowing the wind to carry him, onto the Globe to check it out.

"He's on a small island called Berk," he announced to the others. Its weird, he thought, there's no lights in that area. No one there believes. He shrugged, not really thinking much about it. "Okay North," he called out to the big man. "Send me to Germany."

888

Getting Rapunzel to the North Pole wasn't all that difficult. She absently painted different pictures onto the walls of her tower as Jack explained to her that he had a surprise for her, but she would have to put on a blindfold before he showed it to her. Her large, green eyes lit up with excitement and she let out a small squeal as he placed the blindfold over her eyes. He wanted to keep up with the 'tradition' of hazing the new recruits, but jumping Rapunzel with a sack wasn't going to end well for him, so he decided to take a gentler approach.

He lead her through the portal that would bring them back to North's workshop. And suddenly the air was alive with the sounds of music from the various instruments played by the elves and yetis, and the _whizzing_ and _whooshing_ of different aircrafts flying around the workshop, as well as the sweet smell of woodwork and cookies. Rapunzel tried to look around, but the blindfold was still covering her eyes.

"Where are we, Jack?" she asked, confused. Jack simply chuckled and removed the blindfold to present the Guardians to her.

Tooth, in all her excitement, zipped over to Rapunzel.

"Congratulations," she greeted, shaking her hand vigorously. "It's so nice to meet you, now let me look at your teeth!" Rapunzel complied to Tooth's strange request by opening her mouth and allowing the fairy to get a good look at her pearly whites. "They're very lovely, great job with the floss! I think we're going to be good friends," Tooth declared before allowing North and Sandy the opportunity to greet their soon-to-be comrade.

888

Meanwhile on Berk, Bunny and a pair of yetis were having the strangest time looking for the new recruit. It was if they had stepped into a Lewis Carroll story!

The island itself wasn't at all strange, the area was actually quite beautiful with the mid-afternoon sun causing the waves to shimmer brilliantly as they crashed against the cliffs and the sea stacks that populated the ocean around the island. The green hills seemed to sway with the lively, cool ocean breeze and the caws of various sea birds sounded all around them. The village part, set up on the flattest part of the island, was quaint with different statues of vikings and dragon motifs littering the area. The A-frame houses were stout and wooden, painted in bright, bold colours.

The weird part about it was that there were flying lizards everywhere! Trying to avoid them was proving to be extraordinarily difficult as there were dragons around every corner and a couple of yetis aren't exactly the most stealthy companions. It was after narrowly avoiding detection by a small green dragon the size of a cat, who had begun to follow their scent, when they finally came across their target back and around from the main square in the space between a couple of the A-framed houses.

He seemed to be taking a bath in a trough. Two things were off though, besides the bathing in a trough thing: first, the water seemed to be boiling without any obvious source of heat, and second, it sounded as if their target was talking to himself in some strange language.

"_Thunderman coglet me ava tow easipeaisilemonsqueezi di ickle greenbloods do di wobbly screamers." _He sighed at this._ "Me ava ow-indi-brainbox._"

He rubbed his head as if what he just said entailed a lot of work.

"Who is this dill?" Bunny gestured to the still babbling spirit in the trough as though a pooka and two yetis sneaking around on an island full of dragons wasn't the craziest thing in the world.

Deciding to move on from the current weirdness, he chose to initiate the same tactic he used with Jack when getting him into the sack: Bunny distracts the target while the yetis come from behind. Simple with very few steps, yet effective. He waited until the unknown spirit had finished his bath and had put pants on before he emerged from his hiding place to lean casually on one of the buildings in his cocky fashion.

"Not a very friendly place you got here," Bunny commented, announcing his presence.

The spirit whipped around to face the pooka, immediately taking up a tense, battle-ready stance.

"You shouldn't be here," he growled, his tail whipping back and forth in an aggressive manner.

"I figured by the welcoming party," Bunny replied sarcastically, hoping the yetis would bag him soon. The glare he was getting from this spirit was almost enough to make him sweat.

* * *

I was just about to deal with the odd intruder when the sun went out. Not literarily, of course. But somehow, I had ended up in a sack and was being carried off somewhere like a bunch of vegetables-that-must-not-be-named. I heard the giant rabbit refer to his cohorts on something and I knew I had to get out of this sack before I was taken anywhere. Letting out an ear-splitting roar, I began struggling and frenziedly tearing at the bag that held me captive, ripping it to shreds with my sharp, blade-like claws. It wasn't long before I was free, and luckily still on Berk. As soon as I hit the ground, I turned to face my captors, letting out another roar before sending both the large, furry creatures and then the giant rabbit through some sort of portal they had intended to take me through.

I turned away, planning on leaving it at that but in that instance Hookfang, a bright red, hot-tempered Monstrous Nightmare, raced past me screaming, "_me catcha plus flicka-flame di piss-people do di yowlyshreekers_!" And disappeared into the portal intent on pursuing his alpha's would-be kidnappers.

"Oh for Thor's sake!" I cursed before collecting my weapons, which were still conveniently lying on the ground a couple meters from my bath: Inferno, a retractable sword coated in Monstrous Nightmare saliva to make it flammable with the added benefit of exploding Zibbleback gas, and Paralyzer, a weapon similar to Inferno, although it's retractable blade was dagger sized and coated with Speedstinger venom, and it releases petrifying Flightmare gas, as well as a handful of Zipplewing grenades, Changewing acid released by a small Zippleback gas explosion that were attached to a belt which i clipped onto my hips. I didn't know what I was getting into, but I wanted to be prepared. I then stepped into the portal, set on bringing Hookfang home.

* * *

Dragonese Translations:

-_Thunderman coglet me ava tow easipeaisilemonsqueezi di ickle greenbloods do di wobbly screamers: _Thor know I have to take care of the baby dragons' temper tantrums.

-_Me ava ow-indi-brainbox: _I have a head ache.

-_me catcha plus flicka-flame di piss-people do di yowlyshreekers: _I will catch and set fire to the enemies until they scream.


	3. Chapter 2

North was explaining what being a Guardian entailed to Rapunzel when a portal opened next to the group. Expecting the two yetis to be carrying a sack with a struggling spirit inside, they were surprised when Bunny, along with the two yetis, came flying out of the portal. They all landed in a tangled heap at their feet with an _oomph_, Bunny being squished flat in the bottom of the pile of the large, hairy creatures. He pushed them off with a great effort and brushed himself off, realigning his fur so it wasn't brushed back and so it lay flat.

Jack snickered and poked the ruffled pooka. "I guess the newbie wasn't to thrilled about your idea of initiation."

Bunny was going to make a clever comeback, but in that moment a ginormous, red, flaming head with jaws big enough to swallow Jack whole emerged from the portal.

Moving quicker than what was thought possible for a creature of it's size, the dragon, still on fire mind you, began climbing the walls and pillars around the workshop, leaving scorch and scratch marks everywhere, circling the Guardians threateningly before coming to rest on top of the Globe. It let out an earsplitting roar, causing the spirits to cover their ears and cringe, before it started spewing out liquid flames, setting everything on fire and torching whatever was in range. The smell of kerosene filled the air as the crackling fire began to burn through the wooden balcony they were standing on.

Luckily Jack, freezing the flames by using bright, blue bolts of frost powered by his crook, was able to put out the fires as quickly as they started. Unfortunately the dragon just kept on spitting his flaming spittle until he petered out. A gurgle sounded from the back of his throat, expressing his disgruntlement on running out of fire.

Each of the Guardians prepared to do battle with the no-longer-flaming dragon: North pulled out his long, wicked sharp duel sabres, Bunny readied his wooden boomerangs, twirling them fancily around his fingers in preparation, Jack spun his crook around and took up a battle-ready stance, Tooth unsheathed her silver foil and dagger, and Sandy, using his sand, wielded a couple of golden whips while Rapunzel prepared her cast-iron fry pan. The only thing that stopped the whole thing was the figure that emerged from the portal right before it closed for good.

"_Wha- What are you thinking, you useless reptile!_" The Guardians new recruit scolded the dragon in his funny language. "_You don't _follow_ kidnappers into their lair! What are we going to do now?_" The dragon grumbled apologetically at the spirit before climbing off the Globe and slithering to his alpha's side.

_"__I'm sorry, master. I made a terrible mistake… Thank you for coming to my rescue."_

During this exchange, the Guardians had a chance to observe their recruit. There were a few details MiM seemed to have missed, such as the missing leg that was replaced by a complicated metal peg, the line of black fins that sprung up from his spine, clearly shown as he wasn't wearing a shirt, probably due to these fins and the huge black wings that protruded from his back, and the scales that sprinkled his forehead, down his back, converging around the fins, and across his shoulders. He was also armed to the teeth with strange weapons: two decorative hilts were strapped to each of his legs as well as a belt that held small containers that looked suspiciously like hand grenades. Unsure of how to react, the Guardians kept their weapons at the ready.

* * *

The room I walked into was enormous, filled to the brim with intriguing and ingenious devices that, in any other situation, I would have loved to spend weeks taking apart and examining. But seeing as I had just followed a group of would-be kidnappers into their hideout to retrieve a misbehaving dragon, my curiosity would have to remain unsated.

After I finished scolding the Monstrous Nightmare, I crouched down, taking a good look at my kidnappers. They seemed on edge, which probably had something to do with the gigantic no-longer flaming lizard beside me and the fact I threw some of their cohorts through their portal, which I couldn't be _completely_ blamed for. They all carried fierce looking weapons which agitated both Hookfang and I.

_We need to show them who they're messing with, _Toothless growled hostilely. _We can't have them thinking they can pull another stunt like this. _

Feelings of protection and aggression coursed through me. We often had conflicting opinions on how to deal with certain issues,Toothless and I, as he normally wanted to handle things with shows of power and brute strength while I tended to solve issues with insight and wit. But I knew that in this situation, he was right. They couldn't think they could come along and take my dragons. I had to protect my own.

The only problem was how we were going to get back to Berk as the portal had closed and something tells me the kidnappers were probably not going to be very willing to open another one so we could leave. I checked out the rotating globe behind them. It's like a map, I thought. Maybe we're not to too far and can make it back ourselves.

I eyed each of the kidnappers blocking the way to the globe. They had yet to approach me and still seemed wary. They talked in hushed tones to themselves, periodically glancing in my direction. This didn't ease my agitation toward them. Still in a crouch, I brushed each of the hilts attached to my legs with my finger tips in preparation. Unhinging the two weapons from my legs, I flicked them open. This instantly caught the kidnappers' attention.

Inferno immediately caught on fire while Paralyzer didn't. It was less dramatic but as the blade was coated with Speedstinger venom, a venom that would leave even the greatest warrior temporarily stiff and motionless in moments, it was no less dangerous.

"_Be ready,"_ I commanded Hookfang in Dragonese, the language spoken by the dragons.

"_I'll do what I can, but I'm out of fire_," he responded as he slowly slithered around the kidnappers and scaled the giant globe behind them, taking the high ground. "_I ran out during my initial siege_."

I waved my arms around, gesturing to him in disbelief. "_Oh for Thor's sake!_"

"_Watch out for the boy, he uses ice to put out fire," _he warned before letting out a soft growl.

Surprisingly enough, I wasn't the one who attacked first. The life-sized rabbit, it seems he didn't particularly enjoy being thrown through the portal, was the first to charge me armed with two boomerangs.

"You, ratbag!" he cried as he expertly threw both of them at me. They, almost casually, spun in a wide arch, meaning to smack me in the head or something, but I was able to catch them easily with my draconic reflexes. I nonchalantly examined my newly acquired prizes. The quality of the boomerangs was incredible, I thought, very impressed by the woodwork and the details. The aerodynamics of the weapons were almost perfect. I could do better, but a lot of work must have gone into making them. I then tossed both across the room to Hookfang, who ate the high-quality wood enthusiastically. The rabbit looked on at the loss of his weapons with horror, before retreating to the safety of his group.

I noticed a girl behind the group who seemed lost. Not quite with them. She appeared to be defending herself with a cast iron cooking pan. She's probably another victim, I decided. We have to get her out as well. I slowly approached the mismatched group. Allowing them to surround around me while I analyzed them and their weapons. They all held their varying weapons with practiced ease.

Beside the tall rabbit, in front of me was an enormous man dressed in a bright red outfit with a long, white beard who held two sharp-looking, slightly-curved swords. On my left was a humanoid hummingbird, who also held a sword, but it was thinner and lighter than the swords of the big man, in one hand and a dagger in the other. An abundance of differently coloured feathers covered her petite body from gold to green to purple, they almost seemed to change colours in the light. Behind me was a short, yellow man who wielded two golden whips. His yellow hair stuck out in all directions like sunbeams on a hot summer day and he was dressed in a simple gold robe. Finally, beside the short man was an older boy with white hair and a long stick dressed in a funny looking bright blue tunic and brown pants that cut off just above his bare ankles. The blond haired girl readied her cooking pan, but didn't join in in surrounding me. Instead she stayed off to the side and out of the way, which seemed to confirm my suspicions.

Deciding to start with the big man, I took the necessary steps forward to meet him as he let out a deafening battle-cry worthy of any viking. I lead with Inferno in my left hand, which he was able to block without any trouble, showing his skill at the art of sword fighting. I wasn't deterred however, as he had left an opening for me to scratch him on the forearm with Paralyzer in my right hand.

I jumped back and allowed the venom to work its way through the big man's system, instantly tightening his muscles until they wouldn't be able to move anymore. On humans and dragons, the venom lasts a good day and a half to two days, depending on how much of the venom was injected. But on spirits, the venom only seems to last about an hour or so on a full dosage from the actual dragon. There's a not-so-funny story behind how I acquired this knowledge, but now's not the time to elaborate. The small scratch would probably only keep the big man down for about ten to fifteen minutes. While the reaction is immediate, the venom wears off gradually. No damage would come to the big man, but the others in his group didn't know that.

I turned around to face them.

"Who's next?" I asked in English.

I hadn't noticed the golden dust cloud that was headed towards me until it was too late. I didn't know what the sand would do to me, but I was sure I didn't want to find out. There was nothing I could do to avoid it however, but luckily I had Hookfang as backup even if he had already hit his shot limit. He raised up on his back legs and clapped his wings together, shooting a powerful blast of wind to intercept the sand, sending it towards the small army of large, hairy creatures, who were rushing into the room to join the fight. They collapsed as the the golden sand hit them. Different shapes began floating around above their heads as each of them fell to the floor. I shrugged, rolling with the strangeness. Don't get hit with the sand, I told myself.

Hookfang then slithered off the globe, deciding to join the fight directly by taking on the small golden man and the hummingbird over on the other side of the room. I faced the boy with the white hair and looked him over. His stick didn't look too intimidating, but the frost covering his foreign clothes made me nervous. I remembered what Hookfang had said about the boy's ability to use ice. Not a great combination with my fire, though I would only use it if absolutely necessary.

It's a little known fact that staring into a dragon's eyes can lead to a light hypnotic trance, sometimes causing the victim to get dizzy and pass out. This is an ability I tried using on the frost boy to avoid combat with his ice. It seemed to be working as he, unknowingly, got caught in my eyes. His body relaxed and began to sway, his senses becoming dulled by my gaze.

I realized my mistake far too late as the large rabbit jumped me while I was distracting the boy, wrapping his grey, furry arms around my neck, cutting off my air intake and caused me to drop Inferno. Thor's skivvies! I was out of practice in fighting multiple opponents. This is embarrassing. I could hear Toothless's amused chortle filling my head and I cursed again.

_"__You're a real help,"_ I commented sarcastically to my companion as i tried, in vain, to pry the rabbit off of me, causing Toothless to laugh harder. "_No please, keep laughing at me while I'm choked to death by an overgrown furball_."

Deciding to take matters into my own hands, I flicked Paralyzer closed, twisting it around so I could spray the rabbit on my back with the Flightmare gas. He broke out into a sweat and his grip loosened until I was able to dump him on the ground before flicking the blade open again and scratching his furry leg. Again, the venom took affect and the rabbit didn't move again.

* * *

All Jack could do was watch, dazed by the spirit's mesmerizing stare, as Bunny tumbled off the spirit onto the floor and with a swish of the blade, didn't move again. He seemed to be frozen, just as North was.

"They'll be alright," the spirit reassured Jack. "The effects of the Speedstinger venom will probably only last minutes. Twenty tops." He simply nodded, still kind of out of it. "_I know I shouldn't have told him that. But seriously, he looked like I just killed his Terrible Terror!" _The spirit continued in his strange language to himself.

"Who are you?" Jack asked, interrupting the threatening spirit's self-debate, finally able to shake himself out of the dizzying trance. They began to circle each other. He looked up to meet the wintery spirit's eyes but Jack quickly looked away, not really wanting to be hypnotized again.

"You tried to kidnap me, and you don't know who I am," he deadpanned. "I should be asking you who you are."

"Jack Frost," he answered automatically. The spirit should know who he's messing with, he decided. "Spirit of the North Wind and the Guardian of Fun." He confidently twirled his crook and struck a casual pose, expecting the other spirit to start apologizing or something. Instead, the he only raised an eyebrow.

"Guardian? Should I know what that means?"

Jack was appalled. Who hasn't heard of the Guardians? "Yeah, you know: Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, Jack Frost, the Tooth Fairy, Sandman? Do these names make any sense to you?" He simply shook his head and gestured to Jack with his free hand.

"Does anything you say make sense?"

This astounded Jack. How could someone not know who the Guardians are? He could understand if he didn't know him, even after ten years of being a Guardian, but the others? One would have to be living under a rock, or raised by wolves, or something just as crazy! The other spirit seemed to ponder this and since Jack wanted to try get on his good side, he took a couple steps back, giving him some space to think.

Glancing back to see how Tooth and Sandy were doing against the dragon, he saw the big lizard taking a probably unwanted nap and that his teammates were headed over to give Jack a hand against the spirit. He made eye contact with Sandy and waved him back. He hoped to reason with the aggressive spirit rather than continue to fight him, seeing as he had already taken down two of their friends. Sandy nodded understandingly. He and Tooth kept their distance, but were still close enough to help should things go sideways.

"The name Jack Frost sounds familiar," the spirit decided. "Any relation to Jokul Frosti?"

Jack recognized the name of the evil frost giant, who terrorized the vikings in their time with dangerous frosts and icy winters, and figured that admitting any ties to this character would end with him as frozen stiff as Bunny and North.

"Nope," Jack replied, almost to quickly to cover up the lie. "Never heard of him before."

The spirit visibly relaxed at this. "In that case, my name is Hiccup Horrendous Haddock, the Dragon Alpha. Now will you tell me why you wanted to bring me here?"

Maybe he wasn't as relaxed as he seemed. While his posture was looser, Hiccup still held his terrifying weapon at the ready. Jack looked around for any help, but he had already waved back Tooth and Sandy, who would probably be just as bad as him in explaining the Guardians with Tooth's hyperactive, distracted chatter and Sandy's inability to communicate vocally.

He sighed. North usually did this, but since he was currently frozen stiff, Jack would have to fill in.

* * *

Jack was just about to explain everything when I looked over my shoulder to see how Hookfang was fairing against his opponents. He must have gotten hit by the golden man's sand, because he was lying on his side with his long, forked tongue hanging out the side of his immense jaws, pictures of fish dancing around his head. My blood ran cold and I panicked. How dare they do this to him. Was he hurt? He didn't seem hurt. For Thor's sake I'm supposed to protect him!

"Hookfang!" I called out to him, desperately hoping he would respond, but he made no movement nor did he respond to me in any way.

I pushed Jack roughly out of my way and with an _oomph_, he fell unceremoniously to the floor as I brushed past him. The other two 'Guardians' rushed to Jack's aid, letting me pass without confrontation as I sprinted to my friend's side.

"_What the Hel are you doing, you big lugworm? Get up!_" I commanded in trepidation, trying to use my body to prop him up. He responded by turning his head away from me and letting out a loud snore. Growling in frustration, I retracted Paralyzer and threw it to the ground so I could use both arms to try to shake the Monstrous Nightmare awake. The dagger slid a couple meters away and was now out of reach.

"_Come on!_" I cried. There was nothing I could do to wake him up.

I whirled around at the sound of fluttering wings. The three Guardians had surrounded me while I was trying to wake Hookfang up. They approached me unarmed, trying to calm me down, but I was now a threatened dragon backed into a corner. The feeling of being trapped weighed down on me and I felt my fire begin to burn in the back of my mind. I tried to push it down, but it only pushed back harder, wanting to destroy all who threatened me. In desperation I unhooked one of the Zipplewing grenades from my belt, prepared to lash out at anyone who came too close. But before I could do anything, a metal clang sounded through my head and I was down. Blackness filled my vision and I was out before I hit the floor.


	4. Chapter 3

Toothiana and Jack were trying to calm Hiccup down by talking to him in soothing tones and holding their weaponless hands out in a pacifying way, as one would to a ferocious animal, while Sandy prepared to launch another handful of sand, this time in the shape of a snowball instead of a cloud. The closer they got, the more agitated he became. He grabbed one of the hand grenades from his belt and seemed prepared to use it except he never got a chance as a loud metallic clang resonated throughout the room. Hiccup stiffened momentarily before sinking to the floor, revealing Rapunzel standing behind him with her pan at the ready.

"No one ever expects the blond with a fry pan," she smirked, striking a casual pose while expertly twirling the unexpected weapon around her fingers, tossing it from hand to hand and performing other practiced juggling tricks before wiping off some imaginary dust from it and clipping it to the belt on her waist. "I never leave home without it."

Jack let out a surprised chuckle. "I think you'll fit right in, Rapunzel." Her face lit up like the Sun at this remark.

"Now will someone tell me what is going on?" North's loud, accented voice called out, startling the Guardians into action.

"North!" Tooth called out, zipping over to the large man. "Are you alright?"

His body was still frozen in his defensive pose, but he seemed to have movement from his chest-up as he was able to move his head from side to side and could, obviously, talk.

Jack looked back to Hiccup's prone form on the floor.

"He said the poison wouldn't last that long, around twenty minutes," he explained to the others, though North's paralysis seemed to be wearing off quicker than that. Sandy smiled and gave a silent thumbs up before using his sand to move Hiccup to a more comfortable place then the floor.

"Oh that's reassuring," Bunny commented from his frozen pose on the floor, still not able to move anything more than the muscles on his furry face. Jack leapt over to him, grinning mischievously.

"Having troubles there, Kangaroo? Need a hand?"

"Leave off it, Frostbite," He growled, trying to move any part of his anatomy without much success.

Before Jack had a chance to properly tease the poor pooka, Tooth called him over and asked him to bring Bunny so they could have a group discussion. With many comments about the pooka's weight as well as complaints and insults from said pooka, Jack managed to drag Bunny over to where Tooth was tending to North.

By the time they got there, Sandy was back from depositing Hiccup somewhere, probably in one of North's guest rooms. This also gave North time to get movement back in his arms, which he was currently waving around like a madman. Bunny could now turn his head from side to side and move his arms with the help of Jack, which quickly lead to a round of the 'why you hitting yourself' game. The sleeping dragon's snores came as a reassuring background noise.

"So that was interesting," Jack declared, after getting a mild scolding from Tooth for teasing Bunny. Understatement of the year.

* * *

It had been a long time since Pitch had seen the world above his shadowy lair. After his Nightmares had dragged him down into the hole under the broken bed, as a consequence of his defeat at the hands of the Guardians, they trapped him there and fed off his fear.

This is ridiculous, he thought. I am the _Nightmare King_. _I_ feed on the fear of _others_. Not the other way around. But there was nothing he could do. He was trapped in a cocoon of his own terror. He was ragged, and powerless. A dismal image of what he used to be.

Years passed like this until one day, a figure came along and destroyed the Nightmares, allowing Pitch to stand on his feet for the first time in a long time. The spirit wore thick, black leather boots that matched his leather jacket. Underneath he wore a tight t-shirt with a stylized skull design and tight jeans with decorative chains hanging from them. Two long horns jutted from his skull and shadows covered his face. He laughed maniacally, which was way too cliché for Pitch's taste.

"I need your help with a little project I'm working on," he explained, leaning forward to reveal his face.

Pitch chuckled coldly at his rescuer, now realizing who he was. "So the Devil is my saviour, how ironic. Don't you have some Terrible Two-Year-Old to torment, maybe some temper tantrums to inflict?" The spirit growled at this.

"How many times to I have to tell people, they're not, _temper tantrums_," he quoted with his fingers before screaming, waving his fists around angrily as his face turned the colour of a tomato. "They're Unreasonable Fits of Rage!" He then let out a terrifying battle cry and threw his fist, sloppy in his rage, at Pitch. He dodged the messy assault easily and with his usual flair.

"Ah ah ah! I thought you needed my help." he said, wagging his pointer finger disapprovingly at the spirit like a parent would to a temperamental child.

He grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting bitterly. "I need a powerful spirit. I thought you could get me one."

"What's in it for me?"

The Devil laughed violently at this. "Revenge, mostly. How about taking down the Man in the Moon and his Guardians once and for all?" Pitch grinned darkly at this, his sharp teeth seemed to glow in the faint light.

"You have a deal. I know the perfect spirit for the job and just the friends to help."

* * *

I dreamed of fire. It wasn't an odd dream in any way. In fact it happens quite often. But it's no less frightening. The fire never hurts me. It never can. But it hurts others. I could hear the screams all around me. Yet I could never find them in the blazing flames and choking smoke. I tried covering my ears and shutting my eyes to block them out. But they filled my head, getting louder and louder. More desperate. There was no escape.

"THIS IS YOUR FAULT!" A voice screeched at me, separating itself from the clamour.

I began screaming myself, hoping to drown out the terror around me. But my screams only came out as dry whispers, making me scream harder and harder in panic until I thought my lungs were going to burst. Hysteria began to creep into my mind as I continued to hold my head and silently scream. Fire crackled and sizzled. Ashes rained down from the sky. Suffocating smoke blocked out any clean air. And the panicked screams carried on until I was sure my racing heart couldn't take any more fear and guilt.

And then I was falling.

I woke up gasping for air and covered in a cold sweat on the floor next to a fluffy bed sometime during the night. I thought I saw a shadow move out of the corner of my eye, but it was gone before I could catch a glimpse at it. I took a moment to get myself together after the nightmare, allowing my breathing to return to normal and my heart rate to slow.

"_Is me o di dreamtime_?" I groaned, rubbing my sore head.

_Technically yes, but you have yet to join your family in the Great Halls of Valhalla, my friend,_ Toothless responded jovially.

My vision clouded when I tried to move and my head began to pound and throb, tender to the touch. I guess I was wrong about the blond girl with the cooking pan. I'd love to say that was a first, but after twelve hundred years of existence, I'd be kidding myself.

After managing to clear my cloudy vision, I was able to survey my surroundings. I was in a small, bare room - a contradiction to the cluttered, lively room I fought the Guardians in - with a too comfortable bed, a side table with a lamp and a window looking over the stark tundra of the north. There really wasn't much to it. The moon lit up the night sky, providing me with plenty of light to see by.

I stood up slowly, not wanting to end up on the floor again. My head swam in spite of this, threatening to dump me on my bottom, but I was able to stumble my way across the small room to the door to try the doorknob. It was unlocked to my pleasant surprise.

I checked for my weapons but of course those were confiscated, so I stumbled back to the bed and sat on it. Resting my left leg on my right knee, I began flipping through the functions on my peg leg contraption. Foot? No. Ice pick? Maybe later. Most people would keep a knife in their boot, I kept one in my peg leg. Close enough, right? Finally I came to the blade function and separated it from my leg. Time to get Hookfang and get out of here. As quietly as possible, I opened the door and snuck out into the hallway.

The first being I came across was the hummingbird. The Tooth Fairy, I corrected myself. She was fluttering around the room with the globe, giving orders to smaller hummingbird-like creatures. I saw from my hiding spot that Hookfang was still out cold. Cursing both the dragon and the Sandman under my breath, I quickly formulated a plan. A crazy plan, but a plan none the less.

Sneaking up on the Tooth Fairy was difficult because it was nearly impossible to predict her next movement as she flitted randomly from one direction to another around the room directing her little hummingbirds. I finally managed to get right behind her and rest the point of my blade on her side, pinning her against me. She instantly stilled as her minions buzzed angrily around me like a swarm of bees, twittering some probably horrible insults. A group of them fled, probably to get help. I had to make this fast.

"Where do you keep the portals to get out of here?" I interrogated the Fairy calmly.

"N- North keeps it in a snow globe in his workshop," she stuttered fearfully, trying to curve her body away from the intimidating blade.

"And what did the sand do to my dragon?"

"He's just as- asleep. He will w- wake up in the morning. " I nodded, letting out a subtle sigh of relief. Thank Thor he wasn't hurt.

"I don't suppose you know where my weapons are?"

"North took them to his workshop. He- he probably wanted to figure out how they worked."

I froze. "Wha- No no no no! He can't do that!" I exclaimed, a sense of fear for the large man bloomed in my chest. I released the Fairy and ran my fingers through my hair. "The calibrations on some of those devices are very sensitive, not to mention the chemicals are highly explosive and flammable and dangerous," I told her in a rushed babble, gesturing with my hands to explain the precarious nature of the situation. I turned her around to face me, grasping her roughly by the shoulders and throwing the blade away to show her I was serious. She jumped, startled by my abrupt change of attitude. "You have to show me where he is before he hurts himself or anyone around him."

She nodded silently, her large purple eyes wide with shock and fear, before quickly fluttering off.

"This way," she called to me and I sprinted to keep up with her, praying to all the gods we wouldn't be too late.

The Tooth Fairy and I raced through a labyrinth of hallways and balconies. Every now and then I was able to use my wings to push me forward when there was space between the walls of the hallways, generating a burst of speed. Except then I would have to slow down because the Tooth Fairy's wings just couldn't fly fast enough to keep up with me. It wasn't long before we came to a stop at a large, wooden door at the end of a long corridor. I immediately threw the door open, expecting disaster. I was pretty close.

North had already taken apart Inferno and Paralyzer. Thank the gods he hadn't taken apart any of the cartridges as of yet, but he had begun fiddling with one of the Zipplewing grenades, activating the timer just as the Tooth Fairy and I crashed through the door, nearly tearing it off its hinges.

"Would it kill you to knock," he exclaimed as he whirled around in his desk chair, expecting a blustering yeti complaining about something. He was surprised to see the Tooth Fairy and I charging into the room instead.

"Ah-" I yelped, noticing the activated grenade he was casually holding in his hand. Sprinting to his side of the room, I yelled, "What are you doing?" Before I snatched the device out of his hand and launched it through the floor-to-ceiling window behind his workbench, smashing the glass and causing shards to rain down around us. I pulled him down behind the workbench and covered him with my wings right as the Zippleback gas was lit and the highly corrosive Changewing acid sprayed everywhere, mostly outside, but a few drops sizzled close to North's boot, on his workbench and the ice-walls of his workshop. The Tooth Fairy had enough sense to hide behind the door during the brief explosion and was unharmed.

My heart hammered in my chest and my breathing was laboured from the rush of the almost-disaster and the sprint to his workshop. I met the wide eyes of both North and the Tooth Fairy as each of them tried to catch their own breath.

"Don't-" I gasped. "-touch my stuff-" I gasped again. "-without my permission." North nodded, still breathless.

"What was that?" he asked excitedly, his large, blue eyes now wide with curiosity.

I grinned as I helped the big man to his feet. "Just a little something I thought up on my free time." I then went on to explain how each weapon worked, safely taking them apart to show the fascinated toymaker.

* * *

Tooth was hesitant about leaving North with the spirit who, not five minutes ago had held a blade to her, but everything seemed alright and she knew North could take care of himself. She also had work to do. She flitted off hesitantly, deciding to stay within earshot of North's workshop just incase.

888

"And this one-" Hiccup explained holding up a deactivated Zipplewing grenade. "-is activated when you pull the pin, setting off a timer. When it gets to the end of the gear, it produces a spark from here-" he pointed to a part on the top of the grenade. "-and lights the gas, the controlled explosion releases the acid kept inside."

"These are amazing," North complemented, appreciating the ingenuity of each device. Hiccup shrugged, taken aback by the comment.

"Thanks. If you like these, you'd love my shield," he said with a crooked grin. "Its nice to discuss this stuff with someone. The other dragons aren't all that interested in inventing and building things." North laughed heartily at this.

"I am a toymaker and an inventor, myself. I love to invent and build things," he said, gesturing to his cluttered workshop.

"I can see that," Hiccup chuckled politely.

_Enough of this. _Toothless was getting testy again. _Find out why we're here, _he snapped_. _

"North?" Hiccup shuffled his weight. "This is great and all, but will you tell me why we're- I'm here?" North looked up from the grenade he had been examining, missing Hiccup's slip-up, and turned to face the draconic spirit. He laughed, clapping Hiccup on the shoulder with a large hand.

"You were chosen!" He announced moments before Jack, Sandy, and Bunny crashed through the door, all yelling different things. Well in Sandy's case, he was gesturing madly, the pictures flitting across his head were incomprehensible to everyone. Jack was shouting about the incident with Tooth and the blade, while Bunny was more concerned about the explosion that had just happened right out the bedroom window of his guest room.

"Baby Tooth told me you held a _knife _to Toothiana! What is _wrong_ with you," Jack exclaimed angrily, getting right up in Hiccup's face threateningly - which was difficult since he was so much taller than Jack - but the wind spirit still managed by using his frosty crook threateningly, and was able to force Hiccup to lean back against North's workbench behind him as Bunny was yelling, "the walls in my room are burning away! There was an explosion! Is everyone alright? What happened?"

North glanced sideways at Hiccup. "You threatened Tooth with a knife?" He seemed genuinely surprised by this. Hiccup shrugged defensively.

"I wasn't going to _hurt_ her," he explained somewhat embarrassed, trying sidestep away from Jack's imposing form. "I needed information on how to get out of here and it was just a motivator…" He trailed off, awkwardly ruffling the hair on the back of his head and shifting his weight from one leg to another. "Yeah, okay. It probably wasn't the _best _plan, even by my standards."

"Is no one going to talk about the crazy explosion and the disappearing walls?" Bunny cried incredulously, pulling at his long ears.

North simply waved it off. "Is of no concern."

It was then that Rapunzel walked into the room, her presence making North's cluttered workshop very crowded.

"Why is everybody yelling?" She asked mid yawn, but this didn't stop the chaos around her as everyone started talking, and in some cases yelling, over each other. Bunny was trying work North into more of a frenzy about the explosion and the acid that was burning away the walls of the room he was staying in while Jack still yelling at Hiccup about the incident with Tooth, was causing frost to spread and wind to blow around the cluttered workshop, while Hiccup was still trying, in vain, to sidestep the seething wind spirit.

Irritated from getting overlooked, Sandy pulled one of Hiccup's grenades off of North's workbench and activated it, dispassionately pulling the pin with a glare at the others who were unintentionally ignoring him and what he had to say. The faint ticking of the gears that worked as the timer for the grenade made Hiccup's blood run cold.

"Ah-" He yelped, cutting off Jack mid-tirade and pushed past the chilly spirit to face the little, yellow man. "Why would you do that?" he cried and, for the second time that evening, launched his activated grenade out North's window before hitting the floor with the rest of the Guardians.

He managed to throw it farther this time, keeping the spray of green acid from hitting anything or anyone inside. Even so, he spread out his wings in the hope of shielding as much of the others as possible from any stray drops. Everyone was startled by the small, silent man's kamikaze act, but the message he had been trying to share with the group was compelling enough for such drastic measures: Pitch Black was in the Globe room.

* * *

Translation:

-_Is me o di dreamtime_?: Am I dead?

**A/N: Hope you all are enjoying the story so far! Happy Easter! **

**I've been editing and rereading this chapter for a while now but was unable to get it perfect. I decided to post it, but then after rereading it again, I decided to reedit it again. Sorry for that!**


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N: I apologize for the delay. I've had a lot of last minute assignments to hand in for uni as well finals are this week. I've had little time for writing and editing. Anyways, let me know if you guys are enjoying the story and if there's anything wrong grammar wise. I'm sorry if the characters are OCish (I feel like they kind of are in this chapter), but this is my first fanfic and I'm mostly experimenting with writing style, word choice, PoVs, and other literary tools. Hope you all are enjoying this either way, though :)**

* * *

The Guardians all raced to the Globe room at top speed. They were still uncertain this was truly happening as it had only been about a decade since they last defeated Pitch. There was no way he could be back so soon. Not after his Nightmares dragged him away and imprisoned him. The Guardians had no idea what the Nightmares actually _did_ to Pitch, but they figured it would keep him down for a few centuries at least. How could he have escaped without someone helping him? Who would be stupid or crazy enough?

"This is impossible!" Bunny shouted in disbelief as they turned a corner to another hallway and crossed an intersection, dispersing a group of elves, who were all devouring a plate of goodies, and nearly toppling a yeti carrying an armful of wrapped boxes all piled higher than the creature's head in their haste. The elves scurried off while the yeti shook his furry fist at the group of sprinting spirits.

"Only improbable," Hiccup corrected under his breath as the group turned another corner. The statement was left mostly unheard by the rest of the group. "Nothing's impossible."

_Don't we know it, _Toothless responded to the comment while Hiccup nodded discreetly to his companion.

They almost crashed into Tooth as they rounded the last corner, who was hovering behind one of the pillars just outside the entrance to the balcony. She was keeping an eye on the dreadful spirit, who was just calmly hanging out. Waiting for them. Trying to silently catch their breath, the diverse group looked to North for leadership.

"How do you want to deal with this?" Jack asked, readying his staff. "Take him out right away?"

"We could find out what he's doing here," Rapunzel suggested pacifistically, raising her arms in question. "Why would he come here on his own and just wait? It just doesn't seem logical." Bunny just shook his head at the naive Spring spirit in disagreement.

"No way, Sheila. This is a trap and we'd be idiots to walk into it. For once, I'm with the show pony on this one." Sandy nodded his head and pointed his thumb towards Jack and Bunny, saying that he agreed with them while Jack shot a disgruntled look over at the pooka and let out a small _hey _for being called a show pony. North was just about to open his mouth to discuss each of the options and come up with a plan when he was interrupted by Pitch.

"And here I thought I was the one who creeped in the shadows," he called out to the Guardians sarcastically. Realizing they had lost the element of surprise, the Guardians solemnly left their hiding spot and shuffled into the Globe room.

He looked the same as always: tall, dark and scary. Everything you could want in a Nightmare King. His pale golden eyes gleamed like coins and his too-sharp teeth flashed dangerously in the moonlight that still beamed in from the skylight up above. His dark hair stood on end and his black robe billowed around his willowy figure - a stark contrast to his ashen skin. He stood tall with perfect posture, his hands placed politely behind his back.

"How are you here, Pitch?" North asked, his normally jolly voice coming out dark and threateningly. His Russian accent thickened in his aggravation. "Why did you come here?" Pitch grinned. His golden eyes shone cruelly in the moonlight beaming in from overhead. The lights all flickered for an instant, momentarily dimming the room. The shadows around them seemed to stretch in anticipation.

"I had some help from a friend of mine and why I'm here? Well that will be fully revealed in time. For now, let's have some fun." He dramatically waved his hand and suddenly all of the shadows scattered around the room jumped off the walls and floors, taking on the shapes of tall, lithe men. There were hundreds of them, way too many to fight. The Shadow Men immediately grabbed Jack and took his crook, throwing it into a corner beyond anyone's reach. This effectively ridded him of his frost powers, making him defenceless and giving Pitch the upper hand against the group. The Shadow Men then proceeded to chase down each of the Guardians, holding them in their oddly strong grasps.

The Shadow Men were tall, thin figures without features all exactly the same, like a swarm of faceless ghosts. Though unlike ghosts, the Shadow Men were only partially solid, making it nearly impossible to fight them off because while they could touch and grab you, any blows against them would pass right through like they weren't even there, which became frustrating all too quickly. The only one who seemed to be having any luck was Sandy with his dream sand - while his gold whips still passes through them, the figures still felt the slashes - though that didn't stop the Shadow Men from quickly overtaking the small golden man.

"How are we supposed to fight these things?" Bunny called out, his frustration evident as his fist passed through yet another Shadow Man, allowing it to get the advantage when his defunct blow caused him to lose his balance. It and a bunch of others managed to grab on to him and he was taken down.

"Rapunzel!" Jack called out to the blonde spirit who was darting nimbly around the room trying to avoid getting caught. "Can you use the Sun to get rid of them?"

"Ill try." She paused in her dash from the long, thin fingers of the shadows and began to concentrate. It wasn't long before she began to glow. Starting from her chest and filling the room with an all-encompassing brightness, the light was strong enough to force everyone briefly cover their eyes before they slowly adjusted, squinting and blinking to see through the pain of the bright light. Expecting the brilliant light to chase away the intimidating figures, the Guardians were shocked to find out that it only served to make them more physically present and thus stronger.

"Why isn't it working?" Bunny demanded to know, still struggling against the grasp of about half a dozen Shadow Men.

As quickly as it started, the light dissipated and Rapunzel was trapped by a group of five or six shadowy figures, all holding on to her in their grasp. Hiding in a group of shadows that had not joined in the fight, the Devil slyly observed the blonde spirit as though she was an answer to a question no one else knew was being asked. He chuckled quietly to himself and continued to watch the, in his opinion, boring fight.

Pitch began to laugh. "You think you can defeat a shadow with light?" He asked, delighted by the Guardians' distress and incapability of fending off his friends.

"Hey, Mara!" Hiccup called out to the Nightmare King, recognizing him as the Scandinavian nightmare spirit who tormented him with his fears long before the Guardians had even existed. With the exception of Sandy of course. Pitch responded to his ancient name by turning to the older spirit, chuckling to himself when he realized who had called out to him.

"Are you still crouching on peoples' chests and ruffling their hair?" Hiccup had, until now, stayed out of the fight. He taunted the Nightmare King now, hoping to distract Pitch, so the others could figure out a way to escape from the Shadow Men. Pitch and Hiccup had a long history and a love/hate relationship (mostly hate) that came from being old and knowing each other for too long. Similar to that of two retired neighbours waving their canes and walkers at each other and demanding that one stops walking on the other's lawn or letting one's dog pee on the other's petunias.

"Ah, the Dragon Master," Pitch answered cooly. "I haven't seen hide nor scale of you since you allowed those pesky worms to nest in my lair say, two- three centuries ago, was it?"

"Allowed? I helped the Fireworms move! I figured I would get back at you for the nightmares you were inflicting on _my_ Nightmares the decade before," Hiccup replied dryly.

"And that was for the century before that when you invited me over for tea at 3 o'clock and then barred all the doors to all the buildings on your little island," Pitch countered.

Hiccup chuckled at the memory. "There was dragon poo everywhere," he said, clutching his stomach in laughter.

The Guardians were confused by the two spirits' interaction. Hiccup couldn't actually be _friends_ with Pitch, could he? How did the two know each other if the Guardians themselves had never even heard of Hiccup until now?

He let out a low growl and narrowed his gaze at the dragon alpha. "How are your memories coming along? Still enjoying the tales of the infamous Hiccup Horrendous Haddock: Dragon Conquerer of the Barbaric Archipelago from others rather than reliving them yourself?" Hiccup's laugher diminished and he quieted as Pitch became serious and drifted over to the draconic spirit, completely invading his personal space. Hiccup wanted to back up, but the dragon in him refused to back down from Pitch's challenge so he planted his feet to the floor and stood toe to toe with the Nightmare King, balking at even the thought of submitting.

"Or how about your fear of fire?" he whispered into his ear quietly enough so it was only Hiccup who could hear. At this he shrunk away. Even the dragon alpha in him couldn't keep the fear from gripping his heart as he tried to get away from the petrifying scrutiny of the Nightmare King. "Honestly, I don't know why you would be hanging out with this group-" he turned and gestured to the captive Guardians "-what with all the blood positively dripping from your hands. These people protect children, you know-" Pitch turned back to face the dragon spirit "-Not exactly something you should be in proximity to."

He then shifted his cold calculating gaze away from Hiccup. Pitch surveyed each of the Guardians, all held tight by his shadowy friends. His pale eyes slid past them, landing on Jack and resting there.

"I believe we have what we came for," he called out to his companion, keeping his glower on the wintry spirit, who was still hiding in the shadows. The menacing figure stepped out of his hiding place and regarded Pitch.

"I think you're right," He agreed, smirking at the captive spirits. They both then melted into the shadows and disappeared, the Shadow Men quickly following suit and releasing each of their captives in turn.

"What's the Devil doing with Pitch?" Tooth speculated with confusion. "Those two have never tended to cooperate like that."

"I'm more interested in what they took-" Bunny pointed out glancing down at Sandy, who assembled a question mark over his head and shook his head in bewilderment "-and what it will be used for."

"Hey everyone," Rapunzel called out. "Where did Hiccup go?"

* * *

It was after Mara had turned away from me when the Shadow Men began dragging me through the wall. It was the strangest sensation travelling by shadow and definitely not something I wanted to repeat any time soon. I wasn't solid for a moment. It felt like my body was being stretched and contorted. It was very jarring, confusing and dizzying, and it almost caused me to lose the contents of my stomach when the shadows finally spit me out.

I couldn't make a sound until after I was through the wall and into a dark, dank prison. A single sconce burned on the wall across the hallway in front of me, allowing the Shadow Men the freedom to dance around me. I tried to walk over to it to put it out, preferring darkness to the moving shadows, but I was held back. Restrained by the same shadows I wanted to impair.

"The Shadow Men are certainly a paradoxical character, wouldn't you think?" Mara conceptualized, appearing from no where. "They are creatures of the dark, but they need light to manifest. They have no notion of good nor evil and yet are affiliated with both as they can bring both joy and fear."

"A shadow is created when an object blocks out a source of light, casting a silhouetted image of the object onto the floor or wall," I continued, following Mara's explanation. "The stronger the light, the darker and more prominent the shadow gets. But if one were to snuff out the light-"

The shadows around them flinched. Reacting violently to the idea of dissipating into darkness. The one's restraining me shook me forcibly, causing me to lose my balance and fall to the floor with an _oomph_.

"Jack was already asking Rupunzel to light the room before I could explain the nature of shadows," I explained from my spot on the ground. "By the time her light went out, it was already too late for anyone to do anything."

"Yes. I used Nightmares made from Sandy's corrupted dream sand the last time I confronted the Guardians. Unfortunately they proved to be disloyal and unpredictable."

"So you decided to work with me, Pitch?" Another figure appeared again from no where. He wore a black jacket and a dark t-shirt with a skull design on the front. Long uneven horns jutted from the crown of his own skull. His face was decorated with blue tattooed claw slashes across his left eye and his bright red hair was tied back in a tight messy braid with loose locks falling around his face in the style of a madman. I had a strange feeling of familiarity towards the spirit, but I knew I had never met him before in my existence.

"I know you," I told the spirit as I picked myself off the dusty floor and tried, unsuccessfully, to pull away from the Shadow Men. He only laughed, but it brought no joy. Only a sense of dread.

"Most people call me the Devil, the spirit of unreasonable rage," he explained, examining his finger nails. "But my real name is Dagur the Deranged!" He screamed the last part and began to laugh maniacally again, encouraging the whole deranged-madman persona he was clearly going for. Pitch just sighed dramatically and rolled his eyes disinterestedly at Dagur's antics.

I remembered the name from one of the villains from Toothless' stories about my life. Dagur was the chief of a rival tribe called the Berserkers. They were a strong and bloodthirsty nation, but had always been coaxed into a peace treaty with my tribe, the Hairy Hooligans, until Dagur took over from his father, Osvald the Agreeable. True to his title, Dagur was deranged: joy-hunting dragons, including Toothless himself, and breaking the peace treaty not long after resigning it with my father, Stoick the Vast by actually attacking Berk and kidnapping my father. I managed to save him from the Berserker chief by using one of my insanely crazy plans.

"You were my brother when we were alive," Dagur said, impetuously leaning in very close to my face. I didn't know this part, and neither did Toothless.

"Um… I'm pretty sure I didn't have any siblings," I admitted awkwardly, which caused him to throw his head back and cackle.

"You always did bring the funny, Hiccup. We shared a brotherly bond in spirit, not of blood."

_He's crazy, _Toothless commented. _He tried to kill me and enslave you. He was never your _ally_, let alone brother. I'm your brother. _

"Enough of this," Mara was obviously finished with this walk down memory lane. "We should get started."

Dagur's face contorted angrily and turned the colour of a tomato. "You can't tell me what to do!" He screamed, obviously having a conniption of some sort as he whirled around to face his partner. He swung a fist at the Nightmare King who simply stepped out of Dagur's range. Pitch scowled at the Devil.

"How dare you attack me when I've held up my end of the bargain. I gave you the dragons' alpha who has the ability to use fire and has not one but two souls. He is, inarguably, a very powerful spirit. Now, enough of your hissy fits. You need to tell me how I can get my revenge on the Guardians and get rid of the Moon."

I was confused by this. What did he mean by getting rid of the Moon? Were the Guardians Máni's warriors? North had mentioned he was chosen, but by who? The Guardians? Or Máni himself?

Instead of getting angry at Mara's defiance, Dagur smiled. "Do you remember the story of Ragnarök?" He asked both Mara and I.

"I'm vaguely familiar with it," I replied dryly as I crossed my arms over my chest.

"Well you're my Hati, the one who will devour the Moon," he explained as he gestured to Mara. "I am Sköll, the one who will devour the Sun, and you're my Loki, the one who leads the charge." He snickered. "Balder has died and been resurrected. It's already begun!"

"And what makes you think I'm going to go along with this?" I laughed as I shook my head. "I will never help you end the world."

"You won't have much of a choice," he said, right before grabbing my face and pressing his lips against mine.

It wasn't a romantic or sexual kiss in any way. It was filled with anger and hate which seemed to slide down my throat like shards of glass. I felt myself heat up but I didn't know if it was my fire trying to protect me, or the feelings of red-hot anger and rage he was filling me with. Since he wasn't pulling back, I assumed the latter. There was nothing I could do. I couldn't move to fight him off. I tried to burn him. But he still didn't release me. All I could do was allow him to corrupt my soul with his rage. It felt like an eternity before Dagur finally broke the kiss. I felt damaged. Broken. He had left a stain on my soul that I didn't think would ever leave me. And it made me angry.

"My turn," Mara said right before he brushed my cheek with his long-fingered ashen hand and my head hit the floor. I dreamed of fire once more.

888

Dagur came to visit me every day. He continued breaking my mind and blackening my soul with his rage with each visit. Nightmares plagued me when I slept. The Shadow Men tormented me when Mara and Dagur didn't. The sconce remained lit the whole time. I wasn't sure what was worse.

After the third day, it all became too much for me. I slipped away into the recesses of our mind, letting Toothless take control. He tried his best to protect me, viciously lashing out at any one who tried to touch us, but we were both trapped. When Dagur came to visit, he always managed to push past Toothless to target me. There was no escape and eventually even existing became difficult. I wasn't sure how much longer I would last.

* * *

**A/N: In case you didn't already know, Balder was the god of light and purity and was loved by all the gods in the Norse pantheon. His death was supposed to be the first sign of Ragnarök. He supposedly suffered through nightmares before his death. His would later be resurrected at the end of Ragnarök and the world would start anew. I wanted to compare this with Sandy's death and resurrection in the RotG movie ;) I thought it fit with the story, but i didn't know how to fit it in. Hence the note. **


	6. Chapter 5

Pitch looked in on Hiccup's cell. It had been close to five days since he and the Devil had taken him and abused him until he and his dragon were very nearly unhinged. He hadn't realized it, but since his emancipation from the nightmares, a spark had been lit in Pitch's chest he thought had been smothered a millennia ago, and bit by bit, he began to feel human again. Distant feelings of warmth and sympathy were quietly developing in him. Perhaps the Nightmares had fed off of more than his fear, but also pieces of the dark plaque that has plagued his soul since the end of the first Golden Age. Either way, seeing seeing the draconic spirit tortured day in and day out began to weigh on his chest.

"You need to give the boy a break." Pitch was waiting for Dagur outside Hiccup's cell after he had finished his fifth visit. "I believe you said we wanted him damaged, not irreversibly broken."

"What did I say about telling me what to do?" Dagur growled, ignoring his order and proceeded to pace around the room angrily, his fists opening and closing at his sides in rage. Pitch only rolled his eyes for what felt like the millionth time since he started working with the spirit. He was growing weary of the Devil's volatility.

"You can't keep doing this to him. I've already temporarily stopped the nightmares and called off the shadow men."

"You're weak then," Dagur spat angrily. "What's this spirit to you? I thought you were the Nightmare King!" Pitch wrapped his long fingers around his partner's neck, anger flaring like a bonfire from his chest through his veins.

"Do not mistake my mercy for weakness. I _AM_ the Nightmare King and you _will_ respect me."

Dagur laughed his stupid, cliché laugh as he attempted to pull Pitch's fingers off his throat. "Mercy is weakness. If you don't want your revenge, then leave. Ill start Ragnarök on my own." Pitch glared down at his partner before letting go of the other spirit and turing his back to him, melting into the shadows. He had full intentions of revenge for the Devil's insult.

888

Pitch didn't know the full extent of the Devil's plans for Ragnarök, but he knew he would need help if he wanted to get Hiccup out of there… and foil his plans, of course. He travelled back to the North Pole and towards his enemies, who would have to become his allies. Pitch didn't like this one bit, but the spark in his chest seemed to almost carry him in the direction of his foes for unknown reasons.

When he arrived, the Guardians were all crowded around the globe, pathetically asking the Man in the Moon to guide them. Pitch inwardly laughed at this little twist of fate. This is certainly going to be interesting. The dragon was still sedated by Sanderson's sand, it's snores a reassuring soundtrack. The Guardians were so wrapped up in trying to figure out a plan to find Pitch and the Dagur's hideout, they didn't realize Pitch was right behind them until he cleared his throat. They all spun around to face him and paused, momentarily startled and clearly unprepared at his sudden appearance.

"This is going to be a bit awkward," he admitted right before he was tackled to the ground by North.

"Where is he?!" North demanded to know, holding up one of his wicked sabres to Pitch's throat, who raised his hands in a surrendering motion.

"I came to help," he informed them as innocently as he could, trying to stretch his neck as far away from the sharp weapon as possible.

North held his intimidating glare while Jack and Bunny burst out laughing at this, wiping tears from their eyes. Tooth and Sandy were both trying to control themselves before doubling over, clutching their stomachs. The sounds of their joviality grated on Pitch's nerves.

"I realize how improbable this sounds-"

"Yeah," Bunny gasped, trying to catch his breath from his side-splitting laughter. "It sure does."

Pitch shot a glare at the pooka before continuing. "-but I want to help you." This only made them laugh harder.

"Why should we believe you?" Jack asked, wheezing in his mirth. Pitch grumbled before reaching into his robe and pulling out a tooth box. Tooth reacted immediately, snatching the tooth box out of his hands.

"Where did- When did you- Why do you have this," she demanded to know.

"I noticed it when your tooth boxes were in my possession and I held on to it. I figured it would come in use later. More so to get back at him for the Fireworm incident."

Tooth turned the tooth box to see who's it was. "It's Hiccup's!" She hadn't even realized this was missing. She opened it up. "These teeth are so old," Tooth commented in amazement.

Pitch waved her away. "Yes yes. All's well and good. So do you believe me now?" They all shook their heads. He sighed exasperatedly. "What do I have to do to prove myself?!"

Rapunzel looked closer at the self-proclaimed Nightmare King. She'd heard about the damage he has caused and what happened ten years ago when he killed Sandy and attempted to destroy the Guardians, not to mention the carnage and destruction he wrought when he brought an end to the first Golden Age. But she didn't trust him for a different reason.

Similar to Jack with his North Wind, Rapunzel had a special connection with the Sun. She was able to see and direct energy, especially from the Sun itself, using it to grow and heal. This energy often took on different characteristics, depending on the source. The Guardians were all awash in a silvery glow similar to the colour of moonlight, marking them as MiM's protectors. Hiccup's energy was a brilliant red that faded into gold, dancing as if flames licked his form, probably from his time with the dragons.

Pitch's aura on the other hand a strange consistency and a sick colour. His aura seemed almost sticky and it smelled rotten. It was gross mixture of brown and black shades that just screamed 'wrong', but a hint of gold could be seen, barely flickering underneath all the sludge. Rapunzel didn't want to get any closer, but she needed a better look at this gold glint before she made any official judgements. Edging closer to the Nightmare King, she asked North to let him stand.

"I need to check something out," she explained vaguely to the big man when he questioned her. He reluctantly complied to her odd request and allowed Pitch to get up from the ground. She barely reached his shoulders in height, but she managed to extend her arm up to touch his forehead with the tips of her fingers. This allowed her to get a glimpse of what she had already suspected was happening in his soul.

"The darkness in you is dissipating," she informed him. "That warmth you're probably feeling? It's your soul slowly freeing itself. I can help it along, if you would let me."

Pitch looked at the blonde girl dubiously. This idea was ridiculous! "What you say is impossible. The Fearlings and the Nightmare Men have corrupted my soul for far too long for it to still exist."

"Nothing's impossible, only improbable. I heard someone say something similar recently and it's true," Rapunzel countered. "If you don't believe me, then why are you here?"

That stumped him. He had told the Devil of his mercy, but a Nightmare King does not have mercy! He had then come straight here to his enemies, asking for their help to free his prisoner. What was happening to him? Pitch thought long and hard about this, but he came up with nothing. He had no other answer for this plight.

"Your soul is freeing itself," Rapunzel repeated. "I can see it happening, even if you don't believe me. Let me heal you, then maybe the others will trust you."

Pitch let that sink in. Did he want his soul back? Would he still be the Nightmare King if he did?

"You know, those bad feelings will go away if you let me help." This didn't convince him at all. He had lived with those 'bad feelings' for far too long to remember a time without them. They made him strong. Gave him purpose.

"The darkness won't control you anymore."

That was the prompt needed for Pitch to finally be sold on the idea. No one controlled him, he was the Nightmare King for MiM's sake!. The idea was so ludicrous that he almost let out a chuckle. He glanced at the others, their expressions varied from distaste to doubtful. Except for Sandy, who seemed to almost pity him, though he was the only one who knew him during the first Golden Age when he was Kozmotis Pitchner, besides MiM of course. He knew what Pitch used to be and could be again if he allowed this little blonde girl into his mind.

"Fine," he sighed, his shoulders sagging slightly in surrender. "I will _allow_ you to help." Rapunzel smiled brightly at this. Pitch had to remind himself not to smile back at the little spirit. Stupid soul, he thought bitterly. Now I'm going to free it. Why am I doing this, again?

"Great! So…. um…" She paused, trying to figure out how to actually go about freeing his soul.

"You do know how, don't you?" He asked, noticing her hesitation.

"Of course I do! Don't be silly. Now, um, I need you to bend down," she ordered, trying to sound confident, like she actually what she was doing. With a doubtful expression, Pitch complied, bending down and resting on one knee. She then leaned over and pressed her soft lips against his grey forehead, letting herself into his mind.

It's said, that a kiss is the most powerful thing in the universe. More so than even tears. Rapunzel's kiss allowed her to cleanse Pitch's soul of any of the darkness that infected him, scrubbing away at the sludge and grime to free that golden glimmer until it shone brighter than any star. For Rapunzel and Pitch, an eternity passed as they relived the Nightmare King's memories and washed them clean of the plaguing darkness that corrupted them.

For the Guardians, only moments passed before Rapunzel broke her kiss and took a step back, allowing Pitch to recover from the abrupt cleansing of his soul and get used to the emotions and warmth that rushed into him like water from a broken dam.

"What have you done to me!" He cried out, falling from his knee onto the ground, clawing at his chest in pain. "It hurts so much!"

Rapunzel smiled in sympathy. "I'm sorry, but it's going to hurt for a while," she explained. "You're not used to those feelings of guilt and sorrow, but you will. In time, you will begin to replace those bad feelings with happiness and joy, maybe even love." Pitch began crab-walking backwards, retreating from the girl with an open look of hate and betrayal on his face.

It was then that Sandy split from the group and walked up to the broken Nightmare King. Up to the man who had brought the end to the first Golden Age, who had wrought fear and destruction on the universe for millennia, who had unwittingly abandoned his daughter and Sandy's friend, Emily Jane, and more importantly, had corrupted his dream sand, shot Sandy in the back, thus killing him, then using his corrupted dream sand to then try to dispose of the Guardians and rule the second Golden Age with fear.

Pitch saw the Sandman coming and fear blossomed in his chest. "Sanderson, I- I'm so- so-" He could barely get any words out, the guilt lay heavy on him. He could feel the beginning of tears burning in the back of his eyes and tried to blink them back. He tried to escape the little man and the guilt of everything he had done to him, but the Nightmare King had crab-walked right into the wall and was trapped. Sandy stood right beside Pitch, towering over him, before leaning over and giving the man a tight, warm hug.

He just sat there. Frozen. Not moving. Pitch couldn't even breath for fear of breaking the little man's hug and losing his warmth. When Sandy did let go of him, he smiled gently at him before giving Pitch a childish kiss on the cheek, again filling him with warmth. A picture of him and Sandy shaking hands formed over the little man's head and Pitch knew he was forgiven.

He couldn't keep the shock and disbelief off his face, even as Sandy offered his hand and helped Pitch up off the floor. One by one, the Guardians gave Pitch their forgiveness whether it was with reassuring words from Tooth, a brief handshake from Bunny, or even a strong pat on the back from North. Jack was about to walk over to the Nightmare King to offer his own form of forgiveness when he was stopped by the alert and wary expressions of the others. He cocked his head to the side in confusion.

"What's going on guys?" He asked slowly, thinking they were all trying pull one over on him or something. But then he listened to the disheartening silence. The snores they had been the background music for the past week had stopped, causing Jack's already chilled blood to run cold. The dragon was awake.

888

Suddenly a gooey glob of clear coloured slime dropped onto Jack's shoulder and slid down the front of his hoodie. He shuttered at the thought of where that slime came from and how he was probably going to have to throw out his favourite hoodie if he survived the next few minutes. He whipped around and looked up to the giant scaly head that was looking down on him. Everyone prepared themselves for battle against the huge creature, but the dragon had smartened up this time.

Hookfang lit himself on fire and then with a big _whoosh_, he set alight a blazing wall of fire to separate the ice boy from the others. Before he had a chance to put out the fire, the dragon swiped at Jack with his long, sword-sharp claws, effectively throwing him off balance and keeping him from using his ice to free the other Guardians. Hookfang knew better than to use all his fire up at once this time and instead used his claws, teeth, and tail to keep the wind spirit on his toes and unable to use his frost against the bright red dragon.

Jack tried to launch himself into the air to get an aerial advantage over the flaming lizard and get away from his constant blows and swipes, but the dragon simply clapped his wings together to shoot a powerful blast of wind at him, causing him to crash into the far wall and tumble uselessly to the wooden floor where he lay dazed before the dragon charged him. This forced him to scramble to his feet and nimbly dodge a swipe from Hookfang's claws.

"Jack!" North called out to him, his Russian accent thickening with his fear. "We can't get past fire, is too hot. You need to put it out, or we burn to death!"

"Stop playing with the bloody dragon and get us out of here!" Bunny also yelled, flinching when he got too close to the fire and it singed the fur on his forearm.

"I'm trying!" Jack responded, trying to avoid getting trapped in the dragon's maw. "This is a lot harder than it looks." He managed to avoid the sword-like claws, only to get whipped in the gut by his tail and thrown to the floor.

"No!" Jack cried as his crook fell out of his tight grip and tumbled with a clatter out of reach. He scrambled to get to it, but it was too late. Razor sharp claws closed around him, ripping through the material on his shoulders and sinking into the wooden floorboards, effectively pinning him to the ground. Now he would definitely have to throw out his hoodie, the thought flitting across his panicked mind. The cuts on his arms stung, but that was the least of Jack's worries as he felt Hookfang's hot breath on his cheek. The dragon briefly sniffed his defeated prize before rearing his head back and preparing to blast the ice boy with a fire ball.

On instinct, Jack closed his eyes and raised his hands over his face in a weak attempt to stop the inevitable attack. Hookfang paused and looked curiously at the boy's upraised hands. Hiccup used that gesture to show peace and offer his trust. Was the boy offering peace? He was unarmed and not currently a threat to Hookfang. Should he extend his own trust? The dragon thought back to his previous rider. The ice boy can't be as bad as Snotlout, he grumbled affectionately at the bittersweet memory. Slowly, Hookfang released the boy from his grasp and took a few steps back to allow the boy to stand. The pupils of his lizard-like eyes dilated as the adrenaline rush of battle left his system and the large dragon calmed.

Jack still had his eyes closed and so didn't realize the dragon had let him go. He waited for the final blast of fire that would send him to… wherever spirits go when they die. But it never came. Instead, he felt something dry and scaly rest gently on his right hand. Slowly, he opened his eyes to reveal the crazy fire breathing creature, that was about to kill him about two seconds ago, calmly resting his nose against the palm of Jack's hand. His previously slitted yellow eyes wide, reflecting a sort of trust and understanding that Jack had only ever seen in children. Never in animals.

"Wow," Jack gasped. He couldn't describe the emotions flowing through him, even if he wanted to. Slowly he got up off the floor and stood upright, his hand never breaking contact with the dragon's snout.

"Hey there," his face broke out into a grin as he greeted the huge dragon. Feeling more confident, he place his left hand under Hookfang's jaw and scratched him there timidly.

"What is happening?" North asked, his meaty hands covering his eyes. "I wasn't looking."

"Well the dragon hasn't eaten him yet, that's for sure," Bunny explained disappointingly. His arms crossed over his chest. "In fact, he's petting the damn thing." Tooth lightly punched the Pooka for the comment, but Jack heard the underlying relief in his tone and knew Bunny was just being Bunny.

"What?!"

"You can open your eyes, North," Tooth reassured the big man, overcome with relief. A smile as large as the Horseshoe Falls spread across her face. "Jack's alright!"

Sandy conjured a party whistle and other various noise-makers, using his sand to set off miniature celebratory fireworks above his head.

"Then perhaps he can put out the fire before we all burn to a crisp," Pitch commented dryly, reminding the Guardians of the still burning flames inching closer and closer to the group.

"Oh right!" Jack broke away from the dragon to retrieve his staff. As his hand inched towards the crook, Hookfang let out a warning growl, showing his discomfort regarding Jack holding the weapon. "It's okay," Jack reassured the dragon. "I'm just going to put the fire out so no one gets hurt," he explained as he slowly picked up the crook and held it out in a loose grip. Hookfang seemed to understand and he backed off. Jack quickly shot a bolt of frost at the flaming wall. The floor sizzled and smoke filled the room as the red hot fire came in contact with the freezing ice.

"Took you long enough, you two-bob drongo," Bunny complained as he hopped over the singed wood of the floor. "Any longer and the flying lizard would be having barbecued Guardians and Pitch for dinner."

"Oh I'm sorry. I was only about to get eaten by a five thousand pound flaming reptile," Jack countered sarcastically. Bunny huffed, but he was secretly glad Jack hadn't been eaten.

* * *

**A/N: Hey everyone, sorry for the long delay. Summer vacation ****hasn't been much of a vacation since I have to work tons to get money for Uni. On top of that, my family is moving houses suddenly and inconveniently so I've been pretty busy. I will probably be able to update more once I'm back at Uni and have more free time. Thank you for your patience and I will be continuing this story (I have it all mapped out and I know what is going to happen). Hope you enjoyed this chapter :)**


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